George's Marvellous Medicine

Synopsis

Background

George's nasty old grandma needs teaching a lesson. George decides the best remedy for her grumpiness is a special home-made medicine. But Grandma gets more than she bargained for!

In George's Marvellous Medicine, published in 1981, George Kranky's Grandma may not anticipate the results of the medicine fed to her by her grandson, but like George, Roald Dahl also had fun mixing marvellous concoctions. He called them witches potions and delivered them to his children just before bedtime. They included ingredients like tinned peaches blended with milk and either pink, blue or green food colouring. His were put together carefully, though - none of the nasty side effects George's Grandma experienced...

Roald once said that, had he not become a famous writer, he would have loved to have been a doctor. In fact, after his son, Theo, had an accident in the early 1960s that led him to develop hydrocephalus (or "water on the brain"), Roald helped to create the Wade-Dahl-Till (WDT) valve. This was a cerebral shunt designed to more effectively drain excess fluid from the brains of hydrocephalus patients. By the time the WDT valve was ready for use Theo had recovered enough that he didn't need it, but it went on to be used in countless operations.

Today, Roald Dahl's Marvellous Children's Charity continues this work, helping seriously ill children and young people to live a fuller and happier life.